The present invention relates to a parking brake operating device for a motor vehicle in which an operating lever falls down from a brake-operating position to a non-operating position, while a parking brake is kept operative.
There is a known device, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Pub. No.61-218460 in which a slider mounted to a base of an operating lever slides forwardly, whereby a setting member integrally connected with the slider is disengaged from an engaging portion of an intermediate lever, so that only the operating lever falls down forwardly with respect to the intermediate lever for keeping braking operative. In the device, the operating lever can be brought down during braking, so that the inside of a car is not obstructed. However, when the operating lever is brought down during braking in the device, one hand of a driver grasps a grip of the operating lever, while the slider must be moved by the other hand forwardly. It requires two hands and involves troublesome operation. By pressing down the slider while moving forwardly by one hand, the operating lever can be brought down, but one-hand operation is very difficult since the slider is provided on the base of the operating lever. In the device, when the slider is moved, the setting member rubs against the engaging portion of the intermediate lever. Also, if the slider is not held by the other hand when the operating lever is rotated under braking, the end of the setting member slidably abuts an arcuate guide portion of the intermediate lever, which results in poor durability owing to wear. Further, in the device, the slider and the push button for releasing braking of the parking brake are independently operative. Accordingly, when the slider is operated such that only the operating lever is brought down under braking, it is liable to release braking in error if the push button is mistakenly pressed.
One-hand operating device, for example, in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Pub. No.1-120464 comprises an operating lever elastically engaged with an intermediate lever merely by holding force of a spring, so that the operating lever has a poor stability and is liable to fall down only by softly touching the operating lever. If the holding force of the spring is strengthened, there is another problem which is difficulty in rotation of the operating lever.